ATHOL — The Holiday Decorating Committee is looking for volunteers to contribute two hours to decorate the downtown area in preparation for Santa’s annual visit and help celebrate the season.

The committee is looking for about 20 volunteers — but the more the merrier — to assist with decorating on Saturday, Nov. 18.

Decorating Committee member Jamie Cleveland told the Athol Daily News, “Our plan is to meet at Veterans Park, and our decorating will be done between 10 a.m. and noon. So, we’re going to decorate Veterans Park and we have all the lights. We usually do lights around the bushes, and then we deck all the poles on Main Street. We wrap garland and lights and hang up bows. We’re trying to get people to come assist – pass lights to someone on a ladder, put the garland around – we’re really just trying to get people to just come help decorate our downtown.”

Main Street, she said, will be shut down from the traffic lights at Main and Exchange streets to the intersection of Main and School streets, near the Athol Area YMCA. Employees of the town’s Department of Public Works will string decorations along Main Street, and The North Quabbin Community Coalition and downtown businesses are helping.

“We will have some cookies, some hot chocolate,” said Cleveland. “We might have some carolers just to try and get a little better feel – a little holiday spirit – while people are helping to decorate.”

Cleveland added that once people get the hang of wrapping the garland and lights and putting the bows on, the process should move pretty smoothly, but it’ll be good to have more people. Last year, just a handful showed up, and the decorating took awhile to complete.

“It was a lot,” she said “So, if people just want to come and enjoy a cookie and pass a bow to somebody; we’re just really looking for people to be involved in helping to decorate our downtown.”

People coming to volunteer or simply stopping by to chat this Saturday are asked to donate an unwrapped gift for the Giving Back Together Toy Drive raffle. All toys donated will go directly to children in North Quabbin. Giving Back Together Founder Heather Taylor stressed that gifts are desperately needed for children ages 13 to 17.

In addition to enjoying cookies and hot chocolate, kids can write letters to Santa, and everyone will have a chance to judge holiday window displays.

Santa’s visit to Athol is set to take place on Saturday, Nov. 25, beginning at 4:30 p.m. Riding in the cab of an Athol fire truck, Santa will lead the annual holiday parade from Veterans Park to Town Hall. Visitors will be invited to gather in Memorial Hall at Town Hall for hot cocoa, pictures with Santa, and socializing with friends and neighbors.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.